The Latest: Candidate would back new election if fraud shown

Updated
4:17 pm EST, Monday, December 10, 2018

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2018, file photo, Mark Harris speaks to the media during a news conference in Matthews, N.C. The nation's last unresolved fall congressional race with Harris against Democrat Dan McCready is awash in doubt as North Carolina election investigators concentrate on a rural county where absentee-ballot fraud allegations are so flagrant they've put the Election Day result into question. less

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2018, file photo, Mark Harris speaks to the media during a news conference in Matthews, N.C. The nation's last unresolved fall congressional race with Harris against Democrat Dan ... more

Photo: Chuck Burton, AP

Photo: Chuck Burton, AP

Image
1of/3

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 3

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2018, file photo, Mark Harris speaks to the media during a news conference in Matthews, N.C. The nation's last unresolved fall congressional race with Harris against Democrat Dan McCready is awash in doubt as North Carolina election investigators concentrate on a rural county where absentee-ballot fraud allegations are so flagrant they've put the Election Day result into question. less

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2018, file photo, Mark Harris speaks to the media during a news conference in Matthews, N.C. The nation's last unresolved fall congressional race with Harris against Democrat Dan ... more

Photo: Chuck Burton, AP

The Latest: Candidate would back new election if fraud shown

1 / 3

Back to Gallery

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on a probe into voting irregularities in an unresolved North Carolina congressional race (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

The Republican candidate in an unresolved North Carolina congressional race says he would back a new election if a probe proves that fraud swayed the race's outcome.

Mark Harris released a video statement Friday addressing an investigation into absentee ballot fraud allegations in the district where he holds a slim lead in unofficial results. The state elections board has refused to certify results while it conducts an investigation.

Harris said in the statement that if it's proven that illegal activity changed the outcome of the race, he would "wholeheartedly support a new election."

Harris also repeated that he knew of no wrongdoing during the campaign but that he's fully cooperating with the state investigation.

___

8:45 a.m.

A new filing shows the Republican candidate in North Carolina's unresolved congressional race owes $34,000 to a consultant that's been subpoenaed in a ballot fraud probe.

The Mark Harris campaign listed a debt of $34,310 owed to the Red Dome Group in a filing Federal Election Commission filing late Thursday. The form says the nature of the debt included "Reimbursement Payment for Bladen Absentee."

The filing lists two other debts totaling nearly $20,000 to Red Dome for digital advertising, robocalls and mailings for Harris, whose slim lead over Democrat Dan McCready is now in question.

Red Dome hired a Bladen County contractor being scrutinized by the North Carolina Elections Board. The state has refused to certify the results while it investigates the contractor it described as a person of interest in the probe of ballot irregularities.